Song of Love
by Kirmon64
Summary: Olimar's used to hearing the Pikmin sing... but one manages to surprise him. Takes place during Pikmin 2, but no spoilers.


Ah, yet another ficlet born out of sleepiness and the right music at the right time! XD The song that goes with this, if you're curious, is Strawberry Flower's "Ai no Uta" - the Pikmin theme song of sorts.

**Disclaimer:** Don't own, yo.

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Olimar was used to the Pikmin singing by now, of course. If there were only a few with him, they'd hum. Sometimes in unison, sometimes they'd all follow their own tunes. If there were a hundred with him, they'd hum too. For each situation their song was different; more mournful if they'd just lost a great many Pikmin, or more excited if a large enemy had just been defeated. They used the tunes to coordinate their movements, to call for help, to show their emotions, and, Olimar suspected, to converse with each other.

Not all of them had the same voice. Some were higher-pitched than others. Some warbled. Some whistled. Some were hopelessly out of tune with their brethren. He'd begun to recognize some of them from these qualities. Each of them looked identical within their own color to Olimar; and so personality and voice were the only way to tell them apart. Clinically, he knew that he shouldn't get attached to any of them; the life of a Pikmin was both brutal and short. Besides, it wouldn't be long now before he, Louie, and the Angel left this planet for good. But even so... he just couldn't help it.

The adventurous Red who couldn't hold a tune if his life depended on it - that was Torch. Bryce was the Blue who led his fellows both in song and battle. Ariel was the shy Yellow with a soft but surprisingly deep voice; Violet the dreamy Purple who wandered off far too much for her own good.

But there was one noticeable voice that Olimar nor Louie had been able to place yet. The voice had appeared only recently, and only showed itself when there were many Blues in the field. Even with one hundred Pikmin singing their own tunes, it took only moments to find out whether or not that one certain Blue was amongst them.

Her voice was _beautiful_.

Sometimes, when she sang, all the other Pikmin would fall silent and simply listen. He often wondered what she was singing about, or if her voice carried nothing but a simple melody. Was she telling her brethren a story through song? He'd seen Pikmin telling each other the day's events; might this be so different? Neither he nor Louie could ever catch her in the act, however. She seemed to wish to remain anonymous within the crowd and so would fall silent when they tried to find her.

One day, something different happened.

He and Louie led a combined total of one hundred Pikmin; curiously enough, twenty of each color followed them. It was no surprise to Olimar when they started to hum, but it was a surprise when he realized the tune was different from any of the ones he'd heard before. As far as he could tell, all of the Pikmin had joined in with the song; both Torch's off-key warbling and Bryce's impeccable tenor could easily be made out.

Another voice rose above the others, one Olimar knew well. Both he and Louie stopped, turning to face their Pikmin. One by one the voices dropped out of the song, until it was a solitary Blue at the edge of the group that held the melody, hands clasped together and held to her chest.

Her beautiful voice rose and fell one last time before fading into silence. There was no sound for several long moments, save for the wind whistling through the trees far above. A Pikmin deep withing the group started to make an odd whooping sound, a sound that in this situation very clearly was analogous to applause. Another followed, and then another, until the entire group had joined in. Olimar joined in with his own form of applause - clapping - and Louie, smiling, began to as well. Melody twirled her leaf a little and scuffed the dirt shyly with one foot, seemingly embarrassed.

Then, as if suddenly noticing she had her Leaders' attention, Melody stood up a little straighter, regarding them silently for several long moments. She clasped her hands together and then to her chest once more, closing her eyes.

And she began to sing.

It was not just a simple tune that she was humming, this time. This time, she was singing a full-fledged song, one with distinct words in it. Olimar could see her chest rising and falling heavily with each breath she took as she belted the words out as loud as she could. He wished he could understand what she was saying... but maybe he didn't have to. Though the meaning of the individual words was unknown, the feeling behind all of them together was clear.

She was thanking them.

For leading them, for helping them propagate their species, finding them sources of food. It was a song of thanks, for anything and everything the Pikmin had to be thankful for. As her last note slowly faded into silence, Olimar thought that maybe, just maybe, it was a song of love, too.


End file.
